God trains our hands for war

• Published date: 05 March 2023
• Publication title: The Sunday News

GREETINGS beloved nation in the name of Jesus Christ. Psalm 144:1, 'Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.' As believers we might be knowing how to pray but do we know how to fight battles and wars? By battles and wars I don't mean physical battles fought with guns and such weapons, I mean spiritual battles.

Many believers know how to pray, how to praise and worship God, how to speak in tongues, but when it comes to warfare they are helpless. At the first sign of being attacked by the enemy through sickness, calamity, death, broken relationships, loss of finances or jobs, they are quick to give up and start asking where God is. They are quick to through in the towel if they see that their situation has not changed after a few prayers. This is why we need to be taught warfare so that we may be able to withstand and after having done all to stand.

We would be foolish if we tried to face these battles without asking for the Lord's help daily, and urgently. That's why David prayed that train my fingers for war, and my hands for battle! In the life of a believer there is prayer, and then there is warfare.

The psalmist in Psalms 144:1 prays, 'teach my hands to war'. So meaning that warfare has to be taught, it does not come automatically when we receive Christ, it is not imparted, nor do we receive it by the laying on of hands. Ephesians 6:12 says that we fight not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. So meaning there are battles that as believers we have to fight.

While in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 we are reminded that though the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (or physical), but are rather spiritual, yet are they mighty to the pulling down of the enemies strong holds, both in people's lives and in this world. There is power in prayer and there is victory in warfare. So there are spiritual battles that we have to fight and there are spiritual weapons that we must use in these battles. The question is do we know how to fight these battles? The Bible tells us in Exodus 15:3 that, 'The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.' So meaning that since we are his children, made in his image and after his likeness, we too are expected to be men and women of war.

The question is are we men and women of war like our father, the lord God almighty? He teaches us the art of war, and he furnishes his people with spiritual armour, to fight against their spiritual enemies; he teaches them how to put it on...